Before his eyes, the beast attacked Ornan's corpse. Ken watched helplessly as the man he had only just begun to appreciate was devoured.
As expected, it turned to him next. With a vicious roar it strided towards him, ready to satisfy it's hunger further.
Ken looked around nervously. He definitely didn't have enough space here to fight properly. The best place would definitely be the outside area, where a battle was already taking place. The window to his right was his exit. There just wasn't a better one. Walking down the stairs would take too long.
Using the Force, he quickened his pace and threw his lightsaber forward, causing the window to shatter into thousands of small shards. He jumped towards the newly created opening, brought the lightsaber back into his hand and went into free fall.
The Force allowed him to break the fall from a height of thirty-six meters and land softly.
But to his surprise, there was no longer any sign of a battle. There were only Blan Flos warriors left on site and corpses lay everywhere, both allies and enemies. There were fires in the forest in some places and it also suffered some serious damage. But at the moment no more blaster shots were fired and no explosion illuminated the area. The battle seemed already won. Too bad the worst was yet to come.
"Ken!"m he heard Shesprer shout overjoyed. The padawan ran towards him. "Thank the Force, you're fine! Good news, we won! The enemy has been almost completely eliminated!"
"Bad news," Ken countered frantically. "We don't have time to celebrate."
He walked past Shesprer and addressed the entire crew.
"Run away as fast as you can! Immediately!"
"What's going on?", Shesprer asked, completely perplexed by Ken's reaction.
His question was answered when they heard the terrible roar again and the beast jumped out of the same window as Ken. It held on to the sloping wall of the building with it's claws and slid down it, leaving deep furrows in it's wake.
"This monster has been unleashed," Ken said.
He wondered how Ornan could even consider ever taming this beast.
"Get away!"
Ken took Shesprer and ran away to get out of the monster's landing area. It came with a huge tremor that shook the stones on the ground.
"Fire!" Duke shouted in panic and all the warriors present opened a hail of blasters at the monster.
"Stop it!" Ken shouted at them. "That's no use! You have to get out of here!"
He was right. The small blaster rounds couldn't harm the steel-hard skin of a krayt dragon. Out of sheer rage, the monster charged forward, attacking one warrior after another. They all tried to run away, but none of them had even the slightest chance. Little by little they were all torn apart, including Duke, until only the two Jedi remained.
"Get up!" Ken demanded of Shesprer. "We have to kill it!"
"And how, if I may ask?" Shesprer was too scared to do anything. "It will kill us too!"
"Even if we do, we can't just stand around here doing nothing. If it just keeps going and eventually matures, it will become a huge threat. Then it will be able to fly, even in space, which would be catastrophic."
But Shesprer couldn't get up. He was too scared. Ken huffed angrily. He had to take matters into his own hands again.
With his lightsaber twirling, he charged towards the beast, trying to catch its attention. It worked. It turned towards him and pounced on its next prey. Ken accelerated in the Force and backed away. With acrobatic jumps and quick reflexes, he managed to avoid the bites and scratches, but was driven further back into the forest. The trees took away the freedom of movement he needed and so he made a high jump to temporary safety in one of the treetops.
But for a beast this size, trees were like toothpicks. With its powerful body it felled one tree after another and it was only a matter of time before Ken's tree took its turn.
But then a blaster shot rang out and hit the animal in the back. It turned and ran towards Shesprer, who fired that shot.
On the one hand, Ken was happy that Shesprer had found the courage to fight and thus saved him. But Shesprer had no chance alone. Ken had to rush to his aid. He jumped down from the tree and hurried to get to them.
Meanwhile, Shesprer did nothing other than Ken and drove the monster ahead of him. His plan was probably to tire it out. As the two approached Ken, Shesprer jumped high into the air in a backflip over the monster above. But this one's reflexes weren't from yesterday either. It immediately stood on its hind legs to snap at him. Just before it reached Shesprer with its mouth, Ken pushed him away with a Force push, saving his life. But another thing interested him much more. The monster's belly was completely exposed. Just white skin, no scales, no shell, nothing. He finally knew his weak point.
Shesprer made a hard landing and dragged briefly across the field. But the monster wasn't interested in that. When it was back on all six legs, Ken caught its attention again. He immediately backed away so as not to end up as a morsel. At the edge of the forest he saw some boulders lying from split rocks. He connected with the Force and hurled it directly into the face of this monster. When it briefly squirmed and gasped in pain, Ken immediately ran to Shesprer to check on him and explain his new plan.
"Are you okay?", he asked, shaking the lying Pau'aner.
"Everything's fine." Shesprer coughed. "Just a small scrape on the back." He stood up.
"I know his weak point now," Ken informed him. "Its belly is completely unarmored."
Shesprer's eyes almost glowed. "And you have a plan, right?"
"Yes. Do you still have any grenades?"
Shesprer reached into his small pouch. "Yes."
"Give it to me," Ken urged him.
"What are you planning to do," the Padawan wanted to know.
"No time for explanations."
The monster turned back to them and Shesprer quickly handed him the grenades.
"Now you just have to make sure it gets your attention and stops paying attention to me. And you have to survive. You can leave the rest to me."
"Understood."
Shesprer just seemed to accept it. He trusted him completely.
When the monster came towards them again, Ken quickly jumped towards the wall of the building, pushed himself off it and jumped across the field into the forest to get out of sight. Meanwhile, Shesprer took his legs in his hands and ran away from the monster. He also used Ken's tactics and threw stones at him to attract his attention. Meanwhile, Ken waited in the shelter of the trees for a good opportunity to deal the monster a killing blow.
The pressure Ken was under right now was heavier than he could have described. Everything depended on this one moment. His life, that of Shesprer, that of billions of creatures, and the future of the galaxy. He would have preferred to go through everything calmly, but he couldn't keep Shesprer waiting. Over time he would also run out of strength.
And then the moment came. The two came running towards him just before the edge of the forest. Ken immersed himself in the Force, gathered strength and ran. Timed perfectly, he ran under the beast's belly, activated his lightsaber and cut as deep a wound as possible into the pit of its stomach. He got out just in time before the beast collapsed and began writhing in pain. He was more than happy about that. You really didn't want to be near it while it was moving so uncontrollably.
Suddenly he heard Shesprer screaming desperately. Unfortunately, he still was. Ken could only watch as the monster's powerful paw hit him and he was thrown against the wall of the building.
Ken's instincts immediately told him to run to Shesprer and check on him. But he resisted him. The monster slowly began to regain control and then their opportunity would be gone. Even if it hurt, he couldn't let his feelings distract him now.
He grabbed a rock again and hit the cattle in the head. He used this moment of distraction to run under his stomach again. This time, however, he took the grenades and stuffed them into the wound. He emerged covered in blood, panting, but relieved because he knew they had made it. He turned around and saw the grenades explode inside the beast. Blood and shreds of flesh sprayed in all directions and the monster let out a final, pained roar, which finally died away.
They had done it. Ken was just about to sit down to take a breath after all the strenuous days when he remembered Shesprer. He immediately ran to the boy and looked at him. He was unconscious and bleeding profusely. But Ken could feel his pulse and he was still breathing. He quickly carried him into the base on his back, hoping to find a medi-station. Luckily, there was a terminal right at the entrance where he was able to take a look at the building plans. He dragged Shesprer up to the second floor and found the infirmary there. To his relief, there was even a Kolto tank there, along with a medi-droid. He let Shesprer in and ordered the droid to watch out for him.
After that was done, he went back down to the outer courtyard. It was a terrible sight. A sea of corpses stretched across the entire field. The bare forest floor was either black from burns or soaked red with blood. Ken wanted to throw up. He gathered some of the felled trees and set them on fire. He then placed his dead comrades in the fire.
"Comrades, you didn't die today in vain. Thanks to your sacrifice, we were able to survive and will now be able to warn the Republic and stop the Mandalorians. May your souls find eternal rest."
After the fire went out, he collected the ashes and scattered them to fertilize the bare areas.
"Your death will now allow new life to flourish."
Next he went to the landing platform on the fourth floor, where fortunately there was a hyperspace-capable shuttle. He loaded it with some med kits from the infirmary, as well as whatever provisions he could find. The return flight would take days. But he didn't know for sure. The only thing he knew about the planet's location was that it was in the Outer Rim.
Another hour later he picked up Shesprer and carried him into the shuttle.
And then the moment he had been waiting for so long finally came. He took off, moving out of the planet's mass shadow and heading for Coruscant.